Painting Gallery

Artist:
Daisy Kungah, Billiluna

Title:
Kandimalal

Artist’s Story
A long, long time ago, a star fell down to make Wolfe Creek Crater. It was like a big comet falling from the sky. This happened before Kartiyas (Whites) came and before we were here. We were inside, we weren’t born yet. Then a big rock made a hole in the middle of the crater.

A snake came from the west, traveling high, and fell down into Wolfe Creek Crater. It made its home in the hole in the crater. This hole is not shallow — it goes down deep into the earth, all the way through to Red Rock on Sturt Creek. When rain falls the water rises up in the middle of the crater and you might sink down. Then the whole ground is soft and dangerous. One Kartiya already sank there. In the dry time it is safe to go down, the ground is hard there.

Nobody knew the crater was there. Afterwards we found this place. I know this story. My mother and father taught me. They knew all about it. Now lots of tourists come to this place. There is a sign to tell them about the crater.

Artist:
Daisy Kungah, Billiluna

Title:
Red Rock (Ngaimangaima)

Artist’s Story

After the Rainbow Serpent fell down from the sky and made a tunnel from the center of the crater to Sturt Creek at Red Rock, it then searched for a home along the creek. First it went to one small island, then to another, and then on to a third. After checking out these three islands, it made its home at the first. The Rainbow Serpent still lives there.

Artist:
Daisy Kungah, Billiluna

Title:
Old Crater and Water Holes

Artist’s Story
There is no story associated with this painting. Daisy painted it when Sanday asked her to illustrate the entire area in which the crater is culturally embedded.

Artist:
Boxer Milner, Billiluna

Title:
Kandimalal (Wolfe Creek Crater) and the Rainbow Serpent

Artist’s Story

Star bin fall down from top and made it. That’s what happened, a big star fell and made Kandimalal (the Crater). We call that star kiki in our language.

There was a Rainbow Serpent traveling inside the ground and it came out from the crater. That snake was traveling underground. He came out right in the center of the crater. That’s where the water comes from in the middle of
the crater. It comes from Sturt Creek.

Sometimes, you can see that snake. In the wet season you can see him. He appears like a big light in the middle of the water. That rainbow — big snake, water snake. The name of the snake is Kalpurtu.

Artist:
Boxer Milner, Billiluna

Title:
Waters of Sturt Creek and the Blackheaded Python

Artist’s Story
Boxer said that there is no story associated with this painting because the painting is not of the Dreamtime.

Artist:
Frank Clancy, his wife May, and family, Halls Creek

Title:
Wolfe Creek Crater

Artist’s Story

A long time ago, a meteorite fell to the ground in the Great Sandy Desert. The ground shook violently when it hit the ground. It made a huge hole in the ground. It made Wolfe Creek Crater. The old people call this crater Kandimalal.

There is a cave at Kandimalal. The Rainbow Serpent lived in that cave. This is a secret place. He saw the dingo coming toward him very close. The dingo saw him close, too. The Rainbow Serpent ate the dingo and then spat him out.

A long time ago a man tunneled through the cave. The cave was full of water. A dingo was following the man because he was hungry. When the man came out of the cave, he found himself at Red Rock. The old people call this place Ngaimangaima.

Artist:
Frank Clancy, his wife May, and family, Halls Creek

Title:
Ngaimangaima (Red Rock on Sturt Creek)

Artist’s Story

There is no story associated with this painting.

Artist:
Barbara Sturt, Billiluna and Halls Creek

Title:
Wolfe Creek Dingo Story

Artist’s Story

Along the bottom of this painting is Sturt Creek. Coming off the creek is an underground river, you can see it going to the crater. It comes up in the middle of that crater.

Anyway, one day an old man was hunting for bush tucker. He saw some little dingos with their mother. He chased that mother one, you can see their tracks in the painting, but the mother ran into the crater and climbed down into the hole in the center, where the underground river is. The old man followed.

Later all the people were looking for that old man, but he was nowhere to be seen. They followed his tracks and saw that they went to the hole. They caught up to him but he came out of that hole with all his skin scratched off.

This is a story that my family used to tell us when we were all kids. Some people have a story about a serpent at the crater, but our family used to tell us about the dingo story.

Artist:
Maggie Long, Billiluna and Halls Creek

Title:
Old Crater

Artist’s Story
This painting is of Wolfe Creek Crater, you know, where that big star fell down. Well there’s a big hole there and one man was starving, big starving. He saw one dingo and he chased that dingo into the crater. The dingo disappeared into a hole in the center and the man chased him, but he became lost. He turned back but was still lost underground.

Then he saw sunlight shining down. He followed that light to the entrance of the hole. All the people were looking for him, but he came back himself.

Artist:
Katie Darkie, Billiluna

Title:
Kandimalal

Artist’s Story

After the star fell down into the crater, it made a tunnel and turned into a snake. The snake was moving from water hole to water hole making the track that the Ancestors took.

The black snake in the painting is the Rainbow Serpent. The snake links the Ancestors to a common way of life and ceremonial practices. The water holes were used by people for their camp sites. The footprints show the people moving around.

Artist:
Olive Darkie, Billiluna

Title:
Wolfe Crater and Sturt Creek Water Holes

Artist’s Story
There is no story associated with this painting.

Artist:
Cecily Padoon, Billiluna

Title:
No Title

Artist’s Story

There is no story associated with this painting.

Artist:
Maxine Samuels, Billiluna

Title:
Wolfe Crater

Artist’s Story
There is no story associated with this painting.

Artist:
Jack Lannigan, Halls Creek

Title:
The Yam Dreaming

Artist’s Story

Long time ago, people came here digging for yams, but now they don’t because there are too many white people who go to the crater. The Rainbow Serpent came to the crater along the underground water passage from Red Rock.

Artist:
Jack Lannigan, Halls Creek

Title:
Kandimalal

Artist’s Story
The Rainbow Serpent came from Red Rock. The snake went through the underground tunnel and came up into the middle of the crater. The snake made the hole by poking its head up through the ground, not by falling down from the sky. This is the Dreamtime story.

Artist:
Jane Gordon, Billiluna

Title:
The Fly Dreaming – Ngurriny

Artist’s Story

People have been living in this area from long, long time ago. They didn’t come from Africa, like Kartiyas (Whites) say. We bin already here. We started here. The land was flat first. Some people were living all around the area. They saw a big bright light come down from the sky, coming down like a ball of fire. It shook the ground. The people hid in a cave, because the ground shook real strong.

They saw dust coming up from the ground. When that settled down they were talking to each other. They didn’t want to go closer where that thing fell. They never touched that area. The star that fell down was evil. It was an evil thing.

The flies came out of the hole and the snakes made their home at the crater. The flies were formed by the rain coming down to cool down the ball of fire. Then things started to change and there was plenty of bush meat to hunt.

Now, people are no longer afraid of the crater. They hunt all around, getting bush tucker, and they built the Carranya station [the abandoned tourist rest stop and Aboriginal cattle station where the custodians lived until very recently]. Now, lots of tourists go to Carranya to see the crater. This is the Wolfe Creek Crater Flies Dreamtime Story.

Artist:
John Lewis, Billiluna

Title:
Rainbow Serpents

Artist’s Story
This painting depicts two Rainbow Serpents, a girl one and a man one. The girl snake is the more colorful one, like girl rainbow snakes should be. The male snake is dull and dark, like the male member of a couple should be. The two snakes are a family living at Red Rock. They moved through the land creating the water holes.

Artist:
Stan Brumby, Halls Creek

Title:
The Sugar Leaf Dreaming

Artist’s Story

Well, this star, he got slack. He got slack from a big storm that stretched from ocean to ocean, from north to south. Clouds everywhere and biggest rain coming. That star, him falling, falling, till, bang, he hit the ground. He hit the ground in the softest part and that star pushed through to the underground water, big underground river. That underground river, it goes right underneath, all the way to Bidayanga on the coast, and him burst out into the ocean there, that underground water.

And that star, well, him bin melt in that water, he melted away. And that’s the story. That’s how Wolfe Creek Crater got to be there. No one told me that story, I bin dream him. I dream all about it in my sleep.